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zoemig's review
3.0
"Lily moved in with Nick the following month. There was no request, no whoop of acceptance when she said she would, just the assumption, when her landlord raised her rent, that it would be more convenient if she brought her things to his. They had talked about where they’d store her paintings, her clothes, her washbag, even her bag of cotton wool, and somewhere in between their plans to extend the wardrobe right into the corner of the room she forgot there was something that had not been said."
I picked up this book in Scotland based purely on cover appeal and price, at a second handbook store. I didn't have high expectations for it exactly, but it seemed like a good book to bring on the long flight home. Although I read the first half of it in the air, I wasn't so enthralled and hooked into the story that I needed to finish it when I got home- something which says a lot about the book I think. It was a fine book if you are looking for a read which doesn't require to much thinking, but definitely isn't chick lit or vampire porn either. The book had some lovely passages, particularly with regards to love and what it can do to a person.
However ultimately the book dragged in parts and was easy to put down when I had something to do. The chapters are set in alternating times, which is fine as a technique, but I often felt there was a lack of connection between the two periods until the very end. There were also a lot of almost irrelevant characters I didn't really care about and yet still learned a lot of pointless information regarding. Although I won't spoil the ending, it seemed a little lazy and while it is fine to not agree with a character's decision I feel that the reader should at least be able to understand it and with regards to both time periods, such understanding was definitely lacking.
Overall the book was a gentle, subtle story with some beautiful details but lacking in passion both in regards to the characters and how I felt about it as a reader.
I picked up this book in Scotland based purely on cover appeal and price, at a second handbook store. I didn't have high expectations for it exactly, but it seemed like a good book to bring on the long flight home. Although I read the first half of it in the air, I wasn't so enthralled and hooked into the story that I needed to finish it when I got home- something which says a lot about the book I think. It was a fine book if you are looking for a read which doesn't require to much thinking, but definitely isn't chick lit or vampire porn either. The book had some lovely passages, particularly with regards to love and what it can do to a person.
However ultimately the book dragged in parts and was easy to put down when I had something to do. The chapters are set in alternating times, which is fine as a technique, but I often felt there was a lack of connection between the two periods until the very end. There were also a lot of almost irrelevant characters I didn't really care about and yet still learned a lot of pointless information regarding. Although I won't spoil the ending, it seemed a little lazy and while it is fine to not agree with a character's decision I feel that the reader should at least be able to understand it and with regards to both time periods, such understanding was definitely lacking.
Overall the book was a gentle, subtle story with some beautiful details but lacking in passion both in regards to the characters and how I felt about it as a reader.
booktwitcher23's review against another edition
3.0
This had two good stories entwined but at times the stories a little blurred.
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